The Faroe Islands describes itself as having the lowest crime rate on Earth, but keeps finding itself as the site of gruesome murders. The murders are all fictional, written by crime writers who have left a trail of corpses across Scandinavia.
Writers from Spain, Scotland and Poland are building up the body count in the Faroes, reports The Wall Street Journal, like Chris Ould, who is the author of The Blood Strand, based in Tjørnuvík. The autonomous nation within the Kingdom of Denmark now has their own best-selling crime writer, Jógvan Isaksen. According to Isaksen, people don’t even lock their doors at night on the Faroes Islands, which is where he grew up. But he has produced 18 crime novels based there. Why? “For the fun of it,” he said, according to WSJ.
Jens Jensen, a veteran detective, says the low crime rate is thanks to the nation’s small population, here are just 50,000 people and the fact that you can’t really escape the Islands. There have been four murders in the last 30 years. Lt. Jensen has never used the firearm he carries, though he practices at a shooting range at the foot of a mountain. When the farmer who owns the land lets his sheep graze, they have to stop. The jail in the country is surrounded by steep, grass-covered cliffs and there is a mini-golf course. The windows have no bars. It is this low crime rate that attracts writers for the dramatic setting of their crime novels.
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